PNW Part 8 (First Beach)

I have to admit, at first, I was a bit underwhelmed at seeing First Beach. I wasn’t expecting to see Bella and Jacob or anything, but still… :p…

I guess I was expecting the rocks to be closer to the shore. At the other beaches, I could see and hear the surf hitting the rocks which made the experience more interactive (read: louder) than this. I soon found that the longer I stood looking out into the ocean, my original twinge of disappointment turned to serenity. In addition to that, this beach was less crowded than the others, so I’m sure all of these factors led to my being pleasantly surprised by First Beach.

My kids found this makeshift driftwood “fort” and had a blast playing in it.

I found a heart-shaped rock which gave me a bit of a thrill. (I’m easily entertained like that)

I was (and still am) fascinated that trees are able to grow on those rocks sticking out of the ocean.

We ate dinner at the only restaurant in First Beach that Yelp recommended. (From the looks of it, it also looked to be the only restaurant in town.) We had a front row seat to the “show” – a family of otters were having dinner right outside the window where we sat. ***These pictures were shot from inside the restaurant through the glass window, so please excuse the quality. There was no way to have this vantage point from outside – I tried!***

As the meal progressed, they had to fight off the birds that tried to abscond with their fish:

Note the stink-eye of the otter on the right and the charging of the one on the left.

After that, we saw the first and only bald eagle we were to see on this trip (again, I had to shoot through glass. Ugh!). You can see him there, front and center, perched on the roots of the overturned tree. We watched him fly to his perch, then sit for a good while surveying his territory, fly around some more, then back to the perch again.

I had hoped to see one closer up, but that was the longest lens I had with me, so this is all I got.

*Side note: If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you’d know that I have a tele-zoom 70-300mm lens, but it is HEAVY and I’m trying to sell it, so I had left it at home for this trip. Boo!!!

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